A foundation of participation - tools for building a collaborative learning environment
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The Participation Forum and Participation Map are open-source projects to create custom plugins for the Moodle LMS designed to create highly effective collaborative environments to support the social construction of knowledge. The PartForum sets up "semi-private" group areas, gives structured task details, and automatically awards points based on student contributions. The PartMap is a learning analytic which creates a "data portrait" describing student activity on discussion forums (both native Moodle forums and the PartForums), including both quantitative statistics and a qualitative visual map of the discussion progress.
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A foundation of participation - tools for building a collaborative learning environment
- 1. Building on a Foundation of Participation or Motivating Active Student Engagement in Blended Formative Learning Brant Knutzen Adjunct Lecturer Faculty of Education University of Hong Kong
- 2. Introduction • My passion is online discussions – Moderator of BBS online Debate forum in 1983 • I have been using Moodle LMS to support blended teaching / learning since 2005 – The “heart” of Moodle (Tomaz Lasic) – Learning activity with the most potential for social construction of knowledge – Also the most likely to fail! Why? – What works, and why – Creating new tools • Enable use of discussions as formative learning activities • Evaluating their success (learning analytics) Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 3. What is Blended Learning? • Blended Teaching / Learning – adding online activities to expand the learning environment • Beyond the limited face-to-face classroom time • Incorporating the use of external resources • Creating and supporting learning opportunities which suit the student’s schedules (asynchronous interaction) • Technology supports new ways to collaborate in groups • Excellent transparency into the student learning process Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 4. Social Constructivism • John Biggs captured the educational value of discussion when he stated: "Good dialogue elicits those activities that shape, elaborate, and deepen understanding“ (Biggs 1999 p. 5)
- 5. Benefits of Active Student Engagement Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 6. Motivation Motivation : how do we encourage student engagement with online activities? – Intrinsic and extrinsic methods – Effective use of technology Goals: • Engage the students in formative learning • Social construction of knowledge • Enable teacher to focus on quality • Sustainable teaching practice Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 7. Motivation on three levels 1. Constructive Alignment – between formative and summative activities 2. Situative – groupings and task design create social pressure 3. Leverage the LMS – the Learning Management System (Moodle) provides structures and automation to drive collaborative learning Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 8. Constructive Alignment Slide Design: Brant Knutzen Intended Learning Outcomes Teaching / Learning Activities Summative Assessment Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university.
- 9. Constructive Alignment Slide Design: Brant Knutzen Intended Learning Outcomes Teaching / Learning Activities Summative Assessment Formative Learning Activities Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university.
- 10. Constructive Alignment Slide Design: Brant Knutzen Intended Learning Outcomes Teaching / Learning Activities Summative Assessment Formative Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university.
- 11. Constructive Alignment Slide Design: Brant Knutzen ILO Intended Learning Outcomes Teaching / Learning Activities Summative Assessment Formative Critically evaluate, Reflect e.g. : Intended Learning Outcome - at the end of this course, students will be able to: • Critically evaluate and reflect upon theories, practice, content and concepts learned in this course.
- 12. Constructive Alignment ILO Assessment Cumulative Reflection Slide Design: Brant Knutzen Critically evaluate, Reflect Teaching / Learning Activities Summative Assessment Formative e.g. : Learning Portfolio Blog • Cumulative reflection blog • Meta-cognitive thinking • 温故而知新，可以为师矣。
- 13. Constructive Alignment ILO TLA Assessment Slide Design: Brant Knutzen Critically evaluate, Reflect Teaching Weekly / Learning Forum Discussion Activities Cumulative Reflection Blog Formative e. g. : Weekly Discussion Forums • Oral discussions in classroom to start • Initial perspective is first forum post • Q & A for one week (average ≈ 5 posts) • Final post is reflection on learning • Reflective posts copied into Word blog
- 14. Situative Motivation • Socio-cultural factors • Peer pressure to perform • Key factors to achieve this motivation: – Group formation – Task design Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 15. Situative Motivation Initial state on first class session: – Students are all individuals, no group identity – Teacher as authority and arbiter – Traditional transmission-style teaching • Mass assignments for all students to work on individually • No facilitation of collaboration • Very limited social construction of knowledge Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 16. Situative – no Grouping Teacher Slide Design: Brant Knutzen S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S Very limited collaboration
- 17. Example forum – no groups or task design
- 18. Example forum – no groups or task design • No groups or task design • Each student assigned a unique color, or can use the Moodle profile picture and name • Time dimension is not scaled on Y axis
- 19. Situative – Grouping • Group formation by common interest • Small groups around size 5 – Sets up proximal access – Reduces social barriers to interaction – Reduces the “noise” level • The Participation Forum allows the students to set up their own “semi-private” areas for discussion Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 20. Situative – Task Design • Task design creates a structured requirement for interaction – Participation Forum task: • Easy first post gets everyone involved • Questions gets everyone aware and thinking • Answers require critical or transformative thinking • Additional rounds of Q&A • Final post is reflective: how has perspective changed? Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 21. Situative – after Grouping / Task Design Slide Design: Brant Knutzen Teacher S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
- 22. Situative – after Grouping / Task Design Slide Design: Brant Knutzen Teacher S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
- 23. Situative – after Grouping / Task Design Slide Design: Brant Knutzen Teacher S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
- 24. Example forum #2 with Groups and Task Design
- 25. Participation Map - example forum with Groups and Task Design
- 26. Public Assignment Unsustainable Assessment Grouping, Task Design Assess with Rubric Assessment Design Formative learning activity design Goal: Social Construction of Knowledge Students Engage! 200-300 posts No Collaboration Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 27. Public Assignment Unsustainable Assessment Lack of participation No points Grouping, Task Design Optional Activity Assess with Rubric Assessment Design Formative learning activity design Goal: Social Construction of Knowledge Students Engage! 200-300 posts No Collaboration Activity does not achieve ILO Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 28. Intended Knowledge Learning Outcome Construction! Achieved! Topic Questions Design, Activity Management Participation No Collaboration Public Assignment Unsustainable Assessment Lack of Disaffected Students participation Near 100% Participation! Forum Programmed Point Distribution No points Grouping, Task Design Optional Activity Leverage the LMS Assess with Rubric Assessment Design Formative learning activity design Goal: Social Construction of Knowledge Activity does not achieve ILO Students Engage! Collaboration! Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 29. Leveraging the power of the LMS • The Participation Forum automatically awards points based on participation, produces a grade – Grades produced by participation: • One post = 6 • Two posts = 8 • Three posts = 8.6 • Four posts = 9 • Five posts = 9.2 • Six posts = 9.33 • Seven posts = 9.42 • Eight posts = 9.5 etc • More Q&A participation = higher grade • Carl Rogers: “unconditional positive regard” • Grabinger & Dunlap: REAL – “risk-free environment”
- 30. More participation -> higher grade 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Number of posts -> Forum Grade 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 F o r u m G r a d e Number of discussion posts
- 31. A foundation of participation • This assessment method for assessing a forum creates a foundation of participation: in my experience over 90% of students will cognitively engage with the discussion • As always, the teacher’s role is to create the educational value of the activity: – Set up challenging topic questions to guide exploration – Maintain a “visible presence” in the forum activity – Successfully moderate the discussion
- 32. Discussion moderation techniques • Salmon’s 5-stage model of eModeration • Teacher guides students up the levels toward knowledge development Source: http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/5stage.shtml
- 33. Participation-based forum grade • The Moodle LMS handles the awarding of quantitative marks for participation • Teacher can focus on quality: – Monitor progress – Guide the discussion – Challenge students – Time for thoughtful qualitative feedback • Minimum: 30 mins to 1 hour each week per discussion
- 34. The Participation Map • New Moodle plug-in automates the production of the map of discussion activity: – Quantitative statistics – Qualitative graphic display: a “data portrait” • Useful for displaying discussion activity – Feedback to students in the class (who is working?) – Feedback to teacher (what approach is working?) – Anonymous mode for reporting research results
- 35. Example Participation Map Student profile pictures Overall discussion statistics Students can interact in multiple groups Time scale from Day 1 to Day 14 Red line shows rating cutoff Group comparison stats
- 36. Quantitative Data • Quantitative ratings of overall discussion
- 37. Map of discussion starting in class Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 38. Map of Procrastination Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 39. Participation Map is a teacher tool • After install on Moodle server, this learning analytic tool is only available to those with Teacher roles • New option on Course Administration block
- 40. Participation Map operation • Select the forum, and then plot type: – Normal plot for feedback to teacher and students – Anonymous for reporting results outside
- 41. Conclusion • I have been using the Participation Forum methodology since 2007 – Three levels of motivation consistently achieves very high levels of student activity and engagement with group discussions – Enables the teacher to focus their time / efforts on providing qualitative feedback to support formative learning – “Sounds good, but do you have any evidence?” Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 42. Student activity achieved – Moodle report Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 43. Student participation achieved Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 44. Course comparison – posts and views Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
- 45. Questions and Discussion • My blog about these open source and other research projects: Brant.Knutzen.se • Specific websites for downloading open-source projects: – ParticipationForum.org – ParticipationMap.org • Questions? • My email is: Brant@Knutzen.se
Editor's Notes
- Tomaz Lasic is leader in global Moodle community, keynote speaker presenter at Moodle Moots Why do online discussions fail? Main reason: poor design -> no groups set up, forum topic questions too easy / too hard / too many topic areas attempted in one discussion, poor management -> instructor lacks forum moderation skills. Result: lack of student participation, discussion fails to achieve sufficient levels of interaction (transactivity), no collaboration achieved towards intended learning outcomes What works – developed the Participation Forum methodology for online discussion forums in 2007, used extensively in my own teaching including at HKU since 2009, trained 10 instructors at Lingnan, used on 12 courses there in 2010 New tools: two new plugins: the Participation Forum and the Participation Map (learning analytic)
- Typical instructional design path using constructive alignment Start with ILOs Then the TLAs (most start with traditional transmission style teaching – teacher-centered, passive learning) Then the Summative Assessment method How can we help the students perform well on the Summative Assessment: Formative Learning Activity design - These tend to be student-centered, active learning designs - usually the Formative Learning Activities are the last design element addressed, and the most difficult to achieve a sustainable design If the Formative Learning Activities can be sustainably assessed, they can function as active, student-centered TLAs (driving learning) and build toward the Summative Assessment (alignment) Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university. Maidenhead, UK: SRHE & Open University. Good online instructional design resource at: http://opvclt.monash.edu.au/educational-excellence/gcap/step-landt-quality.html
- Typical instructional design path using constructive alignment Start with ILOs Then the TLAs (most start with traditional transmission style teaching – teacher-centered, passive learning) Then the Summative Assessment method How can we help the students perform well on the Summative Assessment: Formative Learning Activity design - These tend to be student-centered, active learning designs - usually the Formative Learning Activities are the last design element addressed, and the most difficult to achieve a sustainable design If the Formative Learning Activities can be sustainably assessed, they can function as active, student-centered TLAs (driving learning) and build toward the Summative Assessment (alignment) Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university. Maidenhead, UK: SRHE & Open University. Good online instructional design resource at: http://opvclt.monash.edu.au/educational-excellence/gcap/step-landt-quality.html
- Typical instructional design path using constructive alignment Start with ILOs Then the TLAs (most start with traditional transmission style teaching – teacher-centered, passive learning) Then the Summative Assessment method How can we help the students perform well on the Summative Assessment: Formative Learning Activity design - These tend to be student-centered, active learning designs - usually the Formative Learning Activities are the last design element addressed, and the most difficult to achieve a sustainable design If the Formative Learning Activities can be sustainably assessed, they can function as active, student-centered TLAs (driving learning) and build toward the Summative Assessment (alignment) Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university. Maidenhead, UK: SRHE & Open University. Good online instructional design resource at: http://opvclt.monash.edu.au/educational-excellence/gcap/step-landt-quality.html
- Sage on the stage Transmission style teaching with mass assignments No support of collaboration = no social construction of knowledge High quantitative requirement on teacher for feedback to students
- Easy first post gets everyone involved: students post their initial thoughts about the topic (foot in the door technique) Questions gets everyone aware and thinking about other perspectives, even some research into terms and concepts Answers require critical thinking and / or transformative learning as learners defend / explain / adjust their views, even research into field to justify or expand conceptual schema Additional rounds of Q&A raise participation rating and develops transactional exchanges
- Excellent transparency into formative student thinking, misunderstandings, common mistakes Much more support provided for collaborative learning Much more social construction of knowledge Interaction by teacher is selective: with groups or individuals Much lower quantitative requirement on teacher
- Excellent transparency into formative student thinking, misunderstandings, common mistakes Much more support provided for collaborative learning Much more social construction of knowledge Interaction by teacher is selective: with groups or individuals Much lower quantitative requirement on teacher
- Excellent transparency into formative student thinking, misunderstandings, common mistakes Much more support provided for collaborative learning Much more social construction of knowledge Interaction by teacher is selective: with groups or individuals Much lower quantitative requirement on teacher
- Public Assignment – no student collaboration, work produced for assessment not learning (distorted) Unsustainable Activity – (ex: 200-300 forum posts per week) : huge time commitment for quantitative assessment, lack of time for qualitative input (summative?) Leverage the LMS – student construction of content (Forum, Wiki, Glossary), structured peer assessment (Workshop), program automatic point distribution (Quiz (MC, matching, Hot Potatoes), Glossary (peer moderator awarding points), Participation Forum)
- Public Assignment – no student collaboration, work produced for assessment not learning (distorted) Unsustainable Activity – (ex: 200-300 forum posts per week) : huge time commitment for quantitative assessment, lack of time for qualitative input (summative?) Leverage the LMS – student construction of content (Forum, Wiki, Glossary), structured peer assessment (Workshop), program automatic point distribution (Quiz (MC, matching, Hot Potatoes), Glossary (peer moderator awarding points), Participation Forum)
- Public Assignment – no student collaboration, work produced for assessment not learning (distorted) Unsustainable Activity – (ex: 200-300 forum posts per week) : huge time commitment for quantitative assessment, lack of time for qualitative input (summative?) Leverage the LMS – student construction of content (Forum, Wiki, Glossary), structured peer assessment (Workshop), program automatic point distribution (Quiz (MC, matching, Hot Potatoes), Glossary (peer moderator awarding points), Participation Forum)